Saturday, July 4, 2015

After Grace left I only had a little under 2 weeks to prepare for my next June adventure. The trip I have been waiting for the entire year and really my entire life. Drum roll please…

It was time to go to Australia!!!!

Not only was I finally going to explore this beautiful country but most importantly I was going to see Will and be with him for a few days in Brisbane, Australia.

I flew in a day early so I could get a good night sleep and be rested before he got there. I knew Will had to do some work the first night an hour away in the Gold Coast, but I assumed he would come to the hotel to drop his things off first. First mistake of the trip…don't assume. I got an email from him around 2:30 that said he didn't have enough time to come by and that he wasn't going to be home until around 7am the next morning. Obviously this wasn't the ideal thing to hear but I was in Australia and decided to make the best of it. I met up with most of my other friends in the squadron that night and still had a great time.

The view from our hotel

4am rolls around, and even after an attempt to stay awake in hopes Will would walk in early, I passed out. Most of the time when someone comes in really late/early in the morning they are really quiet and careful not to wake the sleeping person up.

Wrong.

Will decides to loudly open our door and say "HEY" as loud as he could while walking in the room. I was so excited to finally hear his voice and to know he was there with me, but I don't remember the last time I was that terrified coming out of a deep sleep. Finally…we were back together!

The next day we got some lunch, shopped around and later in the evening we went to Mount Coot tha to get a view of the entire city. It was absolutely beautiful and the time of day was perfect to see the sunset.

The next day we had a Wine tour with our friends from the squadron. We took a bus full of 26 people up Mount Tamborine and stopped at 5 different wineries. It was such a fun day and weirdly reminded me of how much I miss having this crazy group all together back in Japan.

The next day was probably the one I had been looking forward too for this entire trip. We were finally going to the Lola Pines Sanctuary where we could hold a koala and feed some kangaroos. Doesn't get more Aussie then that!

We took the river ferry with our friends to get there and had the most amazing time. If you ever get a chance to visit Brisbane, this place is a MUST!

Our last day together rolled around and of course I was dreading it. We wanted to spend the day alone, so after some research we found a place called Escape Hunt. If you play computer games you may already know what this is, but basically its a place where they give you a scenario as detectives and put you in a room full of clues to try and solve the mystery. As weird and random as it may seem, it was so fun and hilarious. Afterwards we stayed in the area of Brisbane called Southbank where we ate dinner and talked at a bar for hours trying to push the inevitable. Will had to be back on the boat that night and before we knew it we were back at the hotel packing his bags again.

My first Port call experience was amazing. When you marry someone its with the intention of wanting to be with them and around them every second your given. The military obviously makes this difficult, but the time Will and I do have together gives me motivation to get to that day where this will be possible. It was almost a bit of a tease to have those 4 days with him but I am thankful and grateful for each one. Getting to see Will and being in Australia at the same time will be a trip we will never forget. Now the countdown begins to the next time we see each other at the end of this year!

With Brisbane being over and missing my husband already, what better way to distract yourself then a 5 day trip to Sydney, Australia??